Tate McRae, the Canadian pop sensation, has ignited a social media backlash after appearing in a promotional video for Team USA ahead of the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics 2026. In the video, McRae, who was born in Calgary, Alberta, and attended high school there, is seen asking a computer-animated white owl for directions to Milan to meet Team USA at the opening ceremony.
The NBC video has been slammed by fellow Canadians on social media, with some calling it "infuriating" and one even going as far as to call it "treason." The backlash comes amid larger political tensions between Canada and the US, after President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian goods and repeatedly referred to Canada as the "51st state."
In response to the backlash, McRae took to Instagram to reassure fans, sharing a childhood photo of herself holding a Canadian flag with the caption: "Y'all know I'm Canadian down."
The advert also features McRae promoting the upcoming Super Bowl showdown between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots, which will be hosted on 8 February at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California. NBC, the US broadcaster for the Olympic Games, ran the video to promote their opening ceremony broadcast and subsequent Olympics and Super Bowl coverage. It also features McRae's song "Nobody's Girl."
The reaction was swift on social media. "Tate McRae doing a promo for NBC and Team USA for the Olympics and not Canada has me a bit sad but okay," said Jordan Cicchelli, a Toronto-based sports writer on X. Canadian culture journalist Courtney Shea wrote in Toronto Life that "watching the ad, you'd have absolutely no idea that McRae was born and raised in the Great White North."
Not all posts were overly critical. Blaine Badiuk from Alberta wrote that McRae being used to promote the US Olympic team is just proof of Canada's cultural "domination." "They needed a CANADIAN to sell themselves," Badiuk wrote.
McRae has frequently referenced her Canadian roots in public, including her love for ice hockey. She has been spotted numerous times cheering her home team, the Calgary Flames, with her family. However, the pop star also told a crowd at one of her shows last year that "Canada doesn't feel like home anymore, which is weird." "Calgary, where I'm from, feels a little less like homey than LA," McRae said.
McRae is not the only non-American celebrity to promote Team USA. In another advert for NBC published in November, UK pop star Dua Lipa is seen promoting American skiers Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin, as well as American snowboarder Chloe Kim and American figure skater Alysa Liu.
